On Saturday February 14, Valentine's Day, I was able to experience the 'love' and 'passion' of my adult life . . . . Falconry! The Wisconsin Falconers Association comes together the second weekend of every February to hunt together, have a guest speaker, a raffle, and generally catch up with each other and the birds being flown this season. It was a very good weekend, as I have had no falconry experiences at all this season due to my school work, and my bird-less status. I brought along my own little posse, Rich from Minnesota, my friend and best falconry "dog" (someone who is not a falconer who goes out into the field and helps flush bunnies), and Christina, a young lady who would like to get into falconry, so I could introduce her to some people. We had a most awesome day!
As soon as I arrived and registered, and bought myself a new thick quilted jean shirt with the WFA logo, I met up with Phil and his family, and Dave, and found out we would have our guest speaker, Greg Thomas, come with us, as he is a red-tail hawker . . . and there is no one better to send off a red-tail hawker with than Dave. We went promptly to one of our favorite fields, and within 5 minutes into the field Greg's bird had his first bunny for the day (pictured at the top of this blog entry). After switching out birds, Dave went next, and within another 10 minutes Becky had the first squirrel of the day. We traded out birds again, flying Phil's bird Belle, but despite several impressive flights, the bunnies and squirrels we were trying for found too much cover in the huge brush piles. We would fly her again later, with success.
We returned to the meet hotel for some noon conferences. I missed the one on imping, which is too bad because I really would have liked to have seen that. This all was followed by lunch, and then more hawking . . . what else! Two more squirrels were added to the daily take. I did get to participate in a telemetry chase. I've never participated in one before . . . and fortunately at the end of it all the truant bird was located and safely returned to his falconer.
The evening was enjoyable, I won several nice things in the raffle, and it was good to see several of my falconry contacts and friends. This will most likely be my last meet with the Wisconsin community. On Friday I passed my final exam in the respiratory lifesupport class (ventilators) and have been told it is pretty much downhill from here on out. There are 12 more weeks until I graduate. I go into clinical rotation on Monday. Sometimes it is hard to believe, but truly there is light at the end of the tunnel. It feels like it has been a very long winter, and that is mostly because I am willing it to go by quickly. I also have not had the comfort of hawking to distract my mind. It is my sincere wish to finish this phase of my life, sit and pass my certifying boards, seek and find a new career somewhere . . . . far from here . . . and build a new life. High on the priorities of that new life will be establishing a new mews and taking a falconry bird again. It was wonderful to get out and hunt with my friends, but I missed having my own bird. I hope soon this bird-less year will come to an end . . . and that I shall never be forced through necessity to be bird-less again.
On Saturday February 14, Valentine's Day, I was able to experience the 'love' and 'passion' of my adult life . . . . Falconry! The Wisconsin Falconers Association comes together the second weekend of every February to hunt together, have a guest speaker, a raffle, and generally catch up with each other and the birds being flown this season. It was a very good weekend, as I have had no falconry experiences at all this season due to my school work, and my bird-less status. I brought along my own little posse, Rich from Minnesota, my friend and best falconry "dog" (someone who is not a falconer who goes out into the field and helps flush bunnies), and Christina, a young lady who would like to get into falconry, so I could introduce her to some people. We had a most awesome day!
As soon as I arrived and registered, and bought myself a new thick quilted jean shirt with the WFA logo, I met up with Phil and his family, and Dave, and found out we would have our guest speaker, Greg Thomas, come with us, as he is a red-tail hawker . . . and there is no one better to send off a red-tail hawker with than Dave. We went promptly to one of our favorite fields, and within 5 minutes into the field Greg's bird had his first bunny for the day (pictured at the top of this blog entry). After switching out birds, Dave went next, and within another 10 minutes Becky had the first squirrel of the day. We traded out birds again, flying Phil's bird Belle, but despite several impressive flights, the bunnies and squirrels we were trying for found too much cover in the huge brush piles. We would fly her again later, with success.
We returned to the meet hotel for some noon conferences. I missed the one on imping, which is too bad because I really would have liked to have seen that. This all was followed by lunch, and then more hawking . . . what else! Two more squirrels were added to the daily take. I did get to participate in a telemetry chase. I've never participated in one before . . . and fortunately at the end of it all the truant bird was located and safely returned to his falconer.
The evening was enjoyable, I won several nice things in the raffle, and it was good to see several of my falconry contacts and friends. This will most likely be my last meet with the Wisconsin community. On Friday I passed my final exam in the respiratory lifesupport class (ventilators) and have been told it is pretty much downhill from here on out. There are 12 more weeks until I graduate. I go into clinical rotation on Monday. Sometimes it is hard to believe, but truly there is light at the end of the tunnel. It feels like it has been a very long winter, and that is mostly because I am willing it to go by quickly. I also have not had the comfort of hawking to distract my mind. It is my sincere wish to finish this phase of my life, sit and pass my certifying boards, seek and find a new career somewhere . . . . far from here . . . and build a new life. High on the priorities of that new life will be establishing a new mews and taking a falconry bird again. It was wonderful to get out and hunt with my friends, but I missed having my own bird. I hope soon this bird-less year will come to an end . . . and that I shall never be forced through necessity to be bird-less again.
